“We didn’t look like hobbits…”
In the early 80s, something strange appeared. Picking its way carefully between the dying embers of punk and the just-awakening new wave, something rather proggy was re-emerging. Prog looks at the musical playing field into which Fish and pals emerged, blinking…
Court Jester: Jerry Ewing
“We were doing something really different. The press had allegedly buried progressive rock. We had come up under the fucking radar into the Marquee club. Suddenly prog was back. Of course Sounds would run the new progressive rock revival, the new wave of British prog and shit like that: it was your Solstice and IQ and all stuff like that. We were straight ahead of those bands.”
Pendragon’s 1985 debut, The Jewel.
Dagaband’s Second Time Around (1982).
“The press had allegedly buried progressive rock. We had come up under the fucking radar into the Marquee club. Suddenly prog was back.” Fish
IQ’s 1983 debut, Tales From The Lush Attic.
This is how Fish, somewhat dismissively, described the early 80s musical playing field that was headed by Marillion to Prog towards the end of last year. While he’s not wrong that Marillion were leading the field, both musically and as far as commercial fortunes went, he is being somewhat disingenuous.
PRESS/TWELFTH NIGHT ARCHIVES/ROGER MORGAN
“[Pendragon manager] Greg Lines booked a new band called Marillion to play in Gloucester with Pendragon supporting them,” recalls Pendragon mainstay Nick Barrett. “Marillion brought a lot of fans with them, and it was an opportunity to play in front of an audience that already loved prog rock. The two bands hit it off right away, and [Marillion’s then drummer] Mick Pointer asked Pendragon to support them at the Marquee. And so started the rollercoaster ride of Pendragon.”
It wasn’t just Pendragon either. This writer recalls his own first experience seeing Marillion at the Marquee for their fabled Christmas shows of 1982. The aforementioned Pendragon supported that night, but the other two nights saw Milton Keynes’ folk proggers Solstice and Chesterfield’s answer to ELP, Dagaband support.